The Medford Green Team turned Oktoberfest into an opportunity to show residents how a simple action — putting an item in the right bin — can have a lasting environmental impact.
During the Sept. 19 Oktoberfest at Freedom Park, members and volunteers with the Medford Township Environmental Affairs Advisory Committee/Green Team staffed recycling stations throughout the event, helping attendees properly dispose of recyclable materials while offering education about sustainability efforts in the township.
The initiative grew out of something Green Team members had noticed at previous community events: a lack of recycling opportunities.
“The committee has a strong focus on both composting and recycling,” said Pola Galie, chair of the Medford Township Environmental Affairs Advisory Committee/Green Team.
Keeping recyclable materials out of the trash has environmental benefits, but it can also have a financial impact for the township. Trash sent to a landfill is subject to tipping fees based on weight, Galie explained, meaning diverting recyclable materials can help reduce disposal costs.
This year’s Oktoberfest effort involved 25 people in planning and implementation, including 21 volunteers who actively staffed recycling bins during the event.
Their presence was important because simply placing recycling containers throughout a large event does not guarantee that everything tossed inside can actually be recycled. Volunteers monitored the stations to make sure trash and other contaminants did not end up mixed with recyclable materials while also educating festivalgoers about proper recycling.
Galie said common problems include dirty items, incorrect plastics, cardboard and regular trash being placed in recycling containers.
“If you have unmanned stations, there is the real potential for contamination — trash in the recycling — and that would make that bag trash and unable to be recycled,” she said.
Other volunteers staffed the EAAC/Green Team tent, where residents could learn about additional environmental programs and sign up for initiatives such as Medford’s Community Composting and Adopt-A-Drain programs.
Planning for the Oktoberfest recycling initiative began well before the Sept. 19 event.
Green Team representatives met with Medford Business Association Executive Director Lesha Moore following the 2025 Oktoberfest. Moore served as a liaison with the MBA board, which Galie said was supportive of the effort. The Green Team also coordinated with Medford Township administration and the Department of Public Works.
Rather than setting a specific weight goal, volunteers focused on capturing as much recyclable material as possible while preventing contamination.
Volunteers used luggage scales to weigh bags as they filled throughout the festival. Approximately 88 pounds of recyclable material was documented, though Galie noted it was difficult to obtain precise weights during the busy event.
After Oktoberfest, volunteers collected the bags and delivered the recyclable materials to the Occupational Training Center in Westampton.
The size and layout of a community event such as Oktoberfest can make recycling challenging. Stations are spread across a large area, and attendees may have to hold onto cans, bottles or other recyclable items until they reach the next container.
Another challenge is continuing to build public understanding about what can be recycled and why doing so matters.
“Having people understand how important recycling is remains both a goal and an obstacle,” Galie said.
The Oktoberfest initiative is one piece of the EAAC/Green Team’s broader sustainability work. Its goal is to foster a positive, informative and action-oriented community focused on improving Medford’s local environment.
That mission takes several forms. Galie pointed to efforts encouraging native plantings and trees, creating pollinator gardens and removing invasive species as examples of opportunities to make Medford more sustainable.
The group is also finding ways to give existing items another life — including Halloween costumes.
Throughout September, the Green Team collected gently used costumes and accessories for children, adults and pets with the goal of keeping them out of landfills. Those donations will now be offered back to the community during a free Halloween Shop on Sunday, Oct. 11, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Cranberry Hall Senior Center, 18 Charles St. in Medford.
The costume effort follows the same philosophy behind the Green Team’s other recycling programs: Something one household no longer needs could still be useful to someone else.
One of the group’s longest-running initiatives demonstrates how those individual actions can add up over time.
Since late 2020, the Green Team has collected plastic through the Trex Recycling Program. Galie said the initiative has kept more than 17,000 pounds of plastic out of the landfill and resulted in more than 10 benches for the township.
While the program now gives participants chances to receive benches rather than guaranteeing them, Galie said keeping the plastic out of the landfill is reward enough.
The Green Team believes the approach used at Oktoberfest could also serve as a model for recycling and waste-reduction efforts at other Medford community events.
“We think so because simple actions can lead to great outcomes over time,” Galie said.
That idea was also at the heart of what Galie and the volunteers hoped residents would take away from seeing recycling in action at Oktoberfest.
“It really is not that hard to perform a simple action that has a compounding positive impact,” she said.
